Saudi Arabia will deny access for Iraq attack

Rumsfeld asserts that White House has not asked to use Saudi territory

DONNA ABU-NASRAssociated Press Writer

Published Thursday, August 08, 2002

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia will not give the United States access to bases in the kingdom for an attack on Saddam Hussein, but the foreign minister said Wednesday the longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air base used for flights to monitor Iraq.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Prince Saud said the 70-year-old U.S.-Saudi alliance was just as solid now as before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.

He said Osama bin Laden, who was stripped of Saudi citizenship and who directed the al-Qaida attacks, had intended to drive a wedge between the two countries when he chose 15 Saudi citizens to be among the 19 hijackers who crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Beyond that, Saud denied the kingdom sends financial aid to Palestinian suicide bombers who have killed more than 260 Israelis in 22 months of Mideast violence.

Saud said his government had made no secret of its opposition to a U.S. strike on Iraq. When asked if the kingdom would allow the United States to use Saudi facilities for such an attack, the prince said:

"We have told them we don't (want) them to use Saudi grounds."

The United States reportedly has quietly moved weapons, equipment and communications gear from Saudi Arabia to the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar in recent months, concerned the kingdom would limit Washington's ability to act freely in the region.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said talk of a U.S. strike against Saddam Hussein was hypothetical and that the president had not asked the Saudis for use of their territory.

"The president has not proposed such a thing; therefore, I don't find it really something that has been engaged as such," Rumsfeld said in response to a question about Saud's remarks.

The Saudi prince, while not addressing Bush's declarations that Saddam must be removed as Iraq's leader, said U.S. goals could be met with other tactics.

"The attack is not the right policy to take, especially since there is a possibility of implementing what the attack is purported to be used for -- which is the return of the (U.N. weapons) inspectors," he said.